godfrey



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GODFREY.

VISUAL ELECTRIC SIGNAL.

No. 810,412. Patented Jan. 6, 1885.

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UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK. M. GODFREY, OF CONGDON, NEBRASKA.

VISUAL ELECTRIC SIGNAL.

sP BcrPIcATIoN forming part of Letters Patent No. 310,412, dated January 6, 1885.

Application filed April 10, 1884. (Nomodch) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK. M. GODFREY, of Gongdon, county of Dawson, and State of Nebraska, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Visual Electric Signals; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use it, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

My invention relates to improvements in railroadsignals in which an electrical detent works in conjunction with a current-breaker; and the object of my invention is to provide a signal to work when an accident occurs. I attain this object by the means shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a perspective view of arailroadbridge having my invention applied. Fig. 2 is a detail of mysignal-box. mature-bearing reflector. cuit-breaker.

Similar letters refer to corresponding parts in all the views.

A A is a bridge, to which the signal-wires are attached by means of the insulators B B, into which the wires are so placed, as shown in Fig. 4, as to allow them to be pulled out when any of the parts to which the insulators are attached are broken. The wire is carried backward and forward and zigzagged across the bridge, and fastened with the insulators B B, and then along the road by means of the ordinary telegraph-poles, to the signal-boxes O O, which are located a good distance on both sides from the bridge. In the boxes 0 O is an electric magnet or detent having suspended therefrom a reflector the concavity of which is turned away from the bridge,so that at night the light from the head-light of the engine is Fig. 4. is the cir- Fig. 3 is the arand connected with a battery, or is connected close at hand. E is the armature or detent, and E the reflector attached thereto. Fis the wire connecting the bridge, signal-magnets, and main line. When the bridge breaks, the wires in the insulators are pulled apart and at once break the circuit, thereby neutralizing the magnets in the boxes G O, and thereby allowing the reflector to fall, and thus sig- 11a].

Of course my invention does not relate strictly to bridges, but may be laid along the track in a wooded country, or in a deep out where an avalanche is likely to occur, so that anything falling across the track will break the Wire and cause the effect described above.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and clesirelto secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. The combination of the magnet D, ar'mature E and reflector E attached thereto, at a signal-box, and electrical connections to a bridge or other part crossed by the road, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination of the magnet D, armature E and reflector E attached thereto, at a signalbox, with electrical connections, as described, to road and line, and the insulators B B upon the bridge or other part of road, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I append my signature.

FRANK. M. GODFREY.

\Vit-n esses:

WM. M. BANCROFT, J. F. SNIDER. 

